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Anyone that's seen one of our military photo roundups, which are posted every Friday afternoon, knows that we're pretty fond of the Osprey, the US military's tilt-rotor cargo plane. While its ability to transition from horizontal to vertical flight is plenty cool on its own, the US Air Force's Special Operations Command could modify the branch's CV-22 (the Marines fly the MV-22), giving it a serious upgrade in the process.

The haulers are being fitted with armor plating, and could even be see forward-facing weaponry installed, following an incident in South Sudan back in December. Two airmen were critically injured after 119 small-arms rounds penetrated the plane's fuselage.

The new armor plating can be installed in customizable segments, allowing flight crews to prioritize certain sections of an aircraft. With its maximum armor complement, the CV-22s will add 800 pounds of body fat, Lt. Gen. Bradley Heithold told Air Force Times, negatively affecting payload and limiting the range of the planes, hence the sectioned approach.

Affordability is a particularly important factor for AFSOC, as it will need to outfit any weapons on all 50 of its CV-22s.

"If you've got a $1 million widget you want to put on the Osprey – 50 of them. We can't afford a $50 million program," Heithold said. "But if you've got a $100,000 or a $50,000 widget that can improve the sustainment, capability or ops of the aircraft, then bring that to us."